Former USI coach to face Eagles' women's basketball team this season

Chancellor Dugan returns as coach of Bellarmine

Chancellor Dugan will return to the sidelines at the University of Southern Indiana this season.

But she'll be on the visiting team's sideline.

Dugan, who coached USI's women's basketball team to the NCAA Division II national championship game in 1997, is now the women's coach at Bellarmine University in her native Louisville, Ky.

That means that USI coach Rick Stein, who was one of Dugan's assistants with the Screaming Eagles, will have to coach against her.

"It's going to be really different, really weird," said Stein.

Dugan and Bellarmine will visit the Physical Activities Center for a Great Lakes Valley Conference game on Jan. 31, part of USI's 2012-13 women's basketball schedule.

That schedule also includes two preseason exhibition games against Division I opponents — Nov. 3 at the Ford Center against the University of Evansville and Nov. 4 at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

USI will start the regular season on the road Nov. 9-10 with two games at the University of West Florida Tip-Off Classic. Then the Eagles will return home for eight consecutive home nonconference games, starting with Kentucky State on Nov. 17.

The GLVC schedule begins at home Jan. 3 against Missouri-St. Louis.

Stein sees the exhibition games as particularly important. By facing UE at the Ford Center, not only will the game take advantage of a natural rivalry, it also will get USI into the facility where the GLVC Tournament will take place in March.

"No one in our conference is coming here to get a game in or even to practice at the Ford Center," said Stein. "That's definitely something I hope will be important for us."

Also, he likes that both exhibitions are not only on succeeding days but at the same time.

"The opening tipoffs are noon and noon," he said. "If you're going to win in the (GLVC) tournament, you have to play back-to-back days."

In addition, a pair of Midwest Region opponents may help with NCAA Tournament considerations. The first game is against Kentucky State. The second, on Nov. 24 in the USI Thanksgiving Classic, is against Notre Dame College out of Ohio.

But the Bellarmine game could be particularly meaningful.

Dugan left Division I Florida Atlantic University — the school that hired her away from USI after the 1997-98 season — at the end of March. At FAU, Dugan posted a 320-290 record with one appearance in the NCAA Tournament, in 2006.

The Bellarmine-USI game not only will be the first meeting between Stein and Dugan as head coaches but also as friends.

"The reason I'm in coaching right now is because of Chance," said Stein. "When I finished my playing days (at USI) and was looking for an opportunity, she took me under her wing."

They're so close that Dugan is the godmother of Stein's son Alex.

"It'll be a little weird being on the other side of the court and not on the same bench," said Stein.